The Shadow Man (CELESTE) Paperback – October 11, 2021

If you are looking for a book that will make you afraid of every shadow that moves one moment and cause you to laugh out loud the next, I offer The Shadow Man by Amélia Cognet as tribute. The first book in Amélia Cognet’s Celeste series is built with expert story weaving, but the well rounded, relatable and at times, very funny characters are what makes the book shine. Riley, the main character, is hunted by a creature that wants to eat her from the inside out. However, Amélia manages to bring depth to the scare factor by giving the reader the opportunity to get to know Riley and the people she cares about.We learn very early on that Riley has the ability to see emotions as colors, and those colors can affect her own feelings. Riley is also hard of hearing, and these attributes become overwhelming at times, and makes social interaction complicated. Being someone who is hard of hearing myself, I was cautiously excited to read about a character like me. I’ve never read a book that managed to capture the reality of being deaf before. By including tiny details like the wind rushing over Riley’s hearing aids as she spends time in her backyard and the importance of being able to lip read, Amélia gets it right without overplaying this aspect of Riley’s character. Even more impressive, Riley’s deafness remained consistent throughout the book rather than popping up when it was convenient for plot.Amélia’s story building was masterful, and I do not use that word lightly. The first several chapters of the book involve some time jumping between 1997 and the current book time, 2005. The information revealed in each era exposes missing pieces and puts them back together until the puzzle of what happened to change Riley’s life so drastically is complete. Then, the story continues forward.Just read it.While The Shadow Man is the first in a series, the novel stands strong on its own. The conclusion was satisfying, and the plot wrapped up well. It’s my love of the characters and Amélia’s writing style that leaves me excited to keep reading.

Despite some grammar errors in this series, it is absolutely gripping! The characters have a genuineness to them that makes you care about them in a real type of way. I purchased book 1 on sale for Kindle and got pulled into the story so much that I could not get enough of the entire series! I found myself genuinely happy, sad, crying, angry, and cheering throughout all four books in a way that no other story has done for me. An emotional rollercoaster and an absolute MUST-READ!!!

Great flow and story line. Scary descriptions and build up…..moving on to book number two, can’t wait to see what’s next!

The author and I, recently joined an amazing group on discord for an author we both adore. She was talking about her books and mentioned that her writing was just compared to our beloved Darcy Coates.Since Darcy is my hands down favorite spooky author, I thought I would give this author a try. Let me just say, I am SO glad I did!I love the characters! I connect with Riley on so many levels. (Even if I am a 40-something mum!) Rudy and James are the kind of guys you want around when things go down. Molly and the rest of the kids are friends I wished I had growing up.The writing was so smooth and the story flowed off the page!Luckily this author has a few more books out to help me kill some time!!Highly recommend reading this author!

This book grabbed me from the start. The author paints a brilliant canvas of the characters that seemed so real. The author does a fantastic job weaving back and forth effortlessly between the years of Riley. Reading about the teenagers love affair was sweet and pure; made me reminisce to my teen years. Looking forward to reading more from Amelia Cognet.

The story and characters are super strong and interesting. The plot is solid. It's a good read, plus it's the beginning of a series.

This is a fantastic story! A new premise on demons which is very well written. I loved the characters and suspense. Will check more out by this author.

I really liked how you could feel everything the characters were going through. It was very suspenseful and made you scared. I actually had to take short breaks. You can definitely treat this as a stand alone read or continue the series if you're hooked.